


miracle on 59th street

by Murf1307



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Miracles, Fix-It, Gen, New York City, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Reunions, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 05:27:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5527733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murf1307/pseuds/Murf1307
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex Summers takes a walk in Manhattan on Christmas Eve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	miracle on 59th street

**Author's Note:**

> this is a little bit a love letter to the city and a little bit a love letter to my favorite ship. merry christmas to all who celebrate, and i hope that everyone who doesn't has a better-than-usual day anyway.

New York at Christmastime is a festival of lights.The Rockefeller Center Tree, the decorations at Macy’s, the rush of silver-bell last-minute shopping down on Fifth Avenue — all of it lit by thousands of little lights.The snow, as it falls, glitters with light, too.

_Merry Christmas_ , Alex Summers thinks to himself, alone in the crowd, carried along by it, because he has nowhere else to be.Oh, sure, there’s always Westchester, but that house only felt like _home_ for one precious summer, before everything fell apart and everyone was either dead, a soldier, or more broken than they liked to let on.

He’s not going to fool himself into thinking next year will be better, either.1964 will be the same as 1963, or worse, depending on if they catch Erik or not.He killed the fucking President, and isn’t that a trip?

The world spins on.Something is different, but the world spins on.

He walks, alone.It would be sad, he supposes, if sadness was still something he felt.At least it’s cold enough to excuse the numbness.

At the south end of Central Park, where Fifth meets 59th, a hand catches his elbow.

He turns, and nothing in the world makes sense.

Because Darwin is _dead,_ Alex saw him die.But this, this at least looks like him, dark and lean, head cocked to the side, measuring.Maybe he sees the fear breaking the ice, because Darwin — _is this Darwin?_ — squeezes his elbow. 

“I promise you, it’s really me,” he says, quietly, and Alex shudders, because he’d almost forgotten the sound of that voice, but now it all comes flooding back, like the last year and a half never happened.

“How?” Alex asks, voice cracked on a whisper of hope.

Darwin shrugs.“I don’t know.What are you doing in the city?”

_The city,_ that’s what real New Yorkers call Manhattan, because there really is no other city like it.There doesn’t need to be. 

The snow swirls around him.“I didn’t want to be up in Westchester,” he admits.

“Westchester?”

“Where the professor lives.”Where he lives, too, he supposes, but, again, it hasn’t been _home_ for a very long time.

It’s surreal, that his mind barely questions how this is all possible, too grateful that it’s happening.The universe shifts, almost, and he falls back into Darwin’s orbit.

Darwin nods like he knew that already, or should have known.

“It’s Christmas.Were you gonna spend it alone?”

“Yeah.”

Darwin _hmms_ a little, like he doesn’t like that idea at all.“Are you still gonna spend it alone?”

It’s a careful question, guarded, and Alex realizes that this is as strange for Darwin as it is for him.But there’s only one right answer, only one possible one.

“No, if you don’t mind.”His voice is still scratchy with cold.

Darwin gives him one of his little smiles, cracked open, and suddenly Alex’s gut turns over, like it used to every time they touched before.Darwin’s hand is still on his elbow, and the crowd parts around them like they’re a rock in a river.

“There’s a diner down the block.I think we’ve got some catching up to do, huh?”

Alex nods, quietly, and lets Darwin lead the way.


End file.
